What we learned @ CO Adventure Day
On August 10th, Outdoorist Oath team members gathered in Rocky Mountain National Park alongside park rangers, community members, sponsors, and outdoor facilitators for a day packed with joy and learning together.
I got up at 5 am and looked at the weather forecast. With an 80% chance of rain and thunder, I would not be surprised if folks didn’t show up. But we said rain or shine, so hopefully someone else is down to party outside with us. Of course, y’all were down to party! This was our best-attended event ever, even with the forecast not seemingly favorable. And momma Earth gifted us a sunny-as-can-be day, with a gentle 5-min sprinkle to remind us of her love. Oh yeah, and it finally downpoured when we were on the road, leaving the park. She likes us, y’all!
The team got to our event site around 8am, while community participants started boarding event shuttles in Boulder, Denver, and Estes Park around that time.
We set up shades and tables for different activities, a runway for accessibility, and got the A/V started with some music. When I visited the site a few months back, and a few days earlier, I had cell reception there. But today, of course, I did not. So it was all now in the hands of our volunteers and community. When the first shuttle rolled up I both felt relief and a little “I knew it.”
After folks got checked in and grabbed their raffle tickets at The Oath’s booth, we all took over a beautiful meadow for an opening by The Oath team members and special guest co-founder José Gonzalez, followed by an event blessing and land acknowledgement and celebration by our dear colleague Sarah Ortegon HighWalking (Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho).
Image courtesy of Visit Estes Park
Sarah danced through the meadow
In red Bright against blue Sky
With bells that came and went with the wind
The beat
Filled my heart
Goosebumps on my skin
The Earth danced alongside her
They sang, and told stories
They took us along
They shared with us
A beautiful gift
After Sarah’s beautiful offering, we split up into adventure groups. Sessions ranged from art making, to using the scientific method, to learning about thru-hiking and much in between.
While I personally couldn’t attend every session we offered, here is a quick recap of lessons learned through each session as experienced by me, or as shared to me/us by participants and facilitators.
NATURE AND ART
Art making doesn’t always have to be an individual quest. In Nature and Community, Jeresneyka Rose guided us through the creation of a collective mural, where each square was the contribution of a different individual, holding stories, symbols, and words important to us. Matched together each square helped create a beautiful and colorful image of our collective tree.
In Nature Journaling, park ranger and environmental educator Haley Stapleton inspired individuals to take it all in, and even to create their own journals. As someone shared with us, they “ learned how to slow down and pay attention to small details of the natural world.” I was personally inspired just by learning Haley dedicates DAILY time for her art practice. Goals.
A participant of Nature and Journaling enjoys time by the stream…
In Nature Portraits, I offered a self-guided activity which helps me reconnect with photography and nature. I believe this mindfulness exercise could be adopted with any art or creative medium and I’m here linking it for you to try it out! Someone who attended left us this message in our feedback survey: “I liked being in the moment and appreciating my surroundings, including little moments with finding singular beauty/appreciation within a larger environment. I will continue to try to practice this when I am out and about in the future.”
OUTDOOR SKILLS
To quote one of the participants, whenever we are outdoors “being prepared is important and making sure that you have enough supplies for everyone in your party is a must.” Jaylyn Gough and Cali Wolf from Native Women's Wilderness, brought a session titled Build Your Own First-Aid Kit, during which participants were able to learn the basics, put together a mini kit, and even get to practice some of the skills attained live.
In Discover the Secrets of Long Distance Hiking, Mexico’s Thru hiking royalty and Triple Crowner Zelzin Aketzali dropped her 10k miles + of knowledge without gatekeeping one bit. She kept it real with talks about supporting one’s mental health on trail (spoiler alert: eat well!), carrying the weight YOU want to carry (vs what they say you should), and she brought tons of gear to demonstrate the differences and why one may choose one kind of shelter over another. Ultimately, we learned that to hike your own hike it’s useful to know what others have done but that to listen to one’s body and heart is key.
Zelzin doing a gear demonstration.
An Oath event is not complete without talking about Leave No Trace. Park Ranger Kristen Davis guided a group of folks to learn about minimizing our impacts outdoors, and learning the 7 Principles of Leave No Trace through games and activities!
Park ranger Karen took folks off trail in Getting Comfortable Off the Beaten Path. Folks shared that the session felt very safe to ask questions, and that they feel more comfortable traveling off trail and understanding how to minimize impacts while slowing down and enjoying nature more. Karen also shared many fun facts about Rocky, including the fact that there are only 20 bears in the ENTIRE park! Did you know?
OUTDOOR CONNECTIONS
“Community develops so much easier in nature,” shared with us one of the participants of Grounding the Body, Connecting with Earth, offered by Sarah Ortegon HighWalking. In her session, Sarah led folks through a grounding practice in which folks were invited to simply stop and do what seemed to be “nothing.” But was it nothing? Turns out that stopping can lead to meaningful connections with nature, so here’s your invitation to try to simply make a “stop” next time you are out and about in nature, and let Earth simply connect with you.
Why do we ever stop playing, when play has been proven time and again to be crucial for learning effectively? Hanna Anderson from The Oath team offered a session on Communication and Play Outdoors. She guided participants through many playground classics, but with a spin packed with lessons on the importance of communication among humans. I heard the crew even created a chat group to get together for more play after the event! We love it!
There are plenty of groups making a difference for a better outdoors around the country. Oftentimes, we see those groups as separate from “us,” everyday people. Jason Swann led a session to show how EVERYBODY can participate in movement-building to support outdoor equity across the country. In Outdoor Equity Advocacy, folks learned how policy is created or changed, and how every person has the power to organize and shape new policies that benefit us all. A participant let us know that they “really walked away wanting to get more deeply involved in local legislation to help!”
For another session, several folks hopped back on the bus for a Women of Rocky History Tour! They learned about the stories and impacts of European homesteading women, including Isabella Bird, Anna Wolfrom Dove, and Esther Burnell, along with more modern females like Bettie Willard, as they ventured throughout the Estes Valley and Rocky Mountain National Park.
After all the sessions concluded, we got back together on the meadow (now officially our thriving meadow), to share lessons, gratitude, run our little giveaway, have picnic lunch with our new friends, and last but not least, for a most-awaited Outdoorsay Drag Performance by no other than Oath co-founder Pattie ;)
My heart was so full. After all the months of planning, fundraising, and getting things done, witnessing our community come together to sing, dance, celebrate, and learn was a huge gift.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and to every sponsor who made it possible!
